Millions of memories. Millions of concerts.
There was an Al Denson live show at Tyler Caldwell auditorium in the early 90s. The house was packed with excited concert goers looking forward to hearing Al sing his hits like “Be the One”.
I was scheduled to MC, and just before I went out to greet the crowd, Al took me aside and asked me to not make a big deal out of his intro. He said “don’t get crazy and loud to hype them up. Just keep it short and sweet.” A simple “ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Al Denson” would be fine.
I actually had a sixty second high energy intro planned, complete with superlatives and schtick. So I had to do a bit of a reset with these last second instructions. So I said “OK”, turned to walk out on stage, grabbed the mic and in an anticipatory, yet understated tone, announced, “Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome, Al Jolson.”